The Biopsy

 It may have all started back when I was 16, no confirmed links but who knows... At 16 years old, I had to get a physical for Basketball, but instead I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis, yeah-good ole Mono. They told me "Your white blood count is sky high, so you either have Leukemia or Mono, we'll let you know". I was like, yeah OK thanks. Thank goodness, it turned out to only be Mono.

Jump forward 28 years to November of 1997. I had been going to the Doctor for awhile with sinus issues (a normal problem in Florida). You know how the Doctor will  feel your neck to see if your lymph nodes are swollen, and  after he felt mine he suggested to me I should have one of my lymph nodes checked out. (When you're sick your lymph nodes will become enlarged, but when it's something else they feel a different way, like hard lumps). Anyway, that meant...lets do a biopsy on one. First, I had blood work done and it was normal and that was good. Then came the lets do a biopsy part. He scheduled me to come to his office after hours so he could slice me up with out any interruptions.

My girl friend came with me for moral support. "OK son, lay back this won't hurt a bit". He proceeded to cut a hole in my neck so he could extract a lymph node. It really wasn't that bad, you know they give you some Novocain shots around the incision area so it wont hurt. However, I guess he forgot I was taking some prescription anti inflammatory at the time and they thin your blood. So needless to say, I was bleeding profusely and he could not stop it. He propped himself against the wall so he could apply pressure to the incision to stop it from bleeding. In the mean time, my girlfriend was out in the waiting room. When the bleeding was finally semi under control, he went out to bring her in so she could see that I was OK. Big Mistake! When she saw me, she screamed, as I was a little bloody, and she nearly fainted. Then he had to escort her back to the waiting room.

Now back to the hole in my neck...Because it was a mess he could not stitch it up and the only solution was to jam a wad of cotton in it and bandage it up. I was eventually able to go home that night, but had to go back to the Doctors office to have the dressing changed every couple of days. I waited about three weeks thinking everything was all right, no news is good news, right. Wrong, just before Thanksgiving I received a phone call from my Doctors office, "Steve we would like for you to come in so we can discuss the biopsy results with you". I asked "can't you just tell me over the phone". They said the usual; "no, you must come see the Doctor".  In my next blog... the news you can't use.